1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, there have been known display devices for a vehicle which can display various types of information, such as map information. Such a display device for a vehicle is disposed, for example, in an instrument panel of an automobile, at the middle thereof in the width direction (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2010-163114).
Generally, such display devices for a vehicle have an integrally-formed display and operating unit. The display serves as a display unit, and the operating unit is arranged so as to enable input of various types of information (e.g., a touch panel). Accordingly, the driver or a passenger seated in the automobile has to reach forward to operate the operating unit, which is problematic in terms of operability.
There has been proposed a display device of which the display is disposed in an instrument panel, at the middle thereof in the width direction, while operating buttons serving as the operating unit are provided to the steering wheel (see Publication (JP-A) No. 2012-022393). This display device allows the driver to operate the operating unit without reaching forward, thereby improving operability.
Now, display devices for a vehicle of which the display unit and operating unit are provided separately, such as in JP-A No. 2012-022393, are often operated by the user looking at the operating unit while operating. This means that the user will be looking at the display unit (instrument panel), and then the operating unit (steering wheel), back to the display unit (instrument panel), and so on, when operating the operating unit to display various types of information on the display unit. Thus, the display device disclosed in JP-A No. 2012-022393 does have improved operability, but is insufficient with regard to ease of visual recognition, since the user has to continuously move the line of sight back and forth.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2012-071687 discloses a display device with an integrated display and touch panel provided to the steering wheel. Now, the posture of the driver seated in the driver's seat differs depending on the body type of the driver. For example, some drivers prefer to sit in the driver's seat with the torso and the steering wheel in relatively close proximity. A driver in such a seating posture will have no problem in particular in viewing display information displayed on a display device where a display and touch panel have been integrated such as disclosed in JP-A No. 2012-071687. However, operation of the touch panel will be difficult, since of the proximity to the driver.
Also, drivers generally tend to view the touch panel while operating the touch panel. The display device disclosed in JP-A No. 2012-071687 will have the line of sight of the driver oriented somewhat downwards when a driver having such a seating posture as described above operates the touch panel. This means that to operate the touch panel while driving, the driver has to move his/her line of sight up and down between the outside, ahead of the automobile, and the touch panel, which is a fairly large movement. Further, the driver has to focus back and forth between faraway (outside the automobile) and up close (the touch panel), which is not necessarily suitable.
Now, such display devices generally tend to have a small-sized display screen, due to dimensional restrictions within the cabin. Accordingly, displaying a great amount of information on such a display device results in the display size of the information being small, and hence difficult to view.